Earlier this year, MINI teamed up with Dezeen and the UK’s most
progressive young designers to explore how design and technology could
transform the way we travel in years to come. The following images and
videos are an insight into their inspiration and an exciting first peek at
their work before the final pieces are unveiled at the exhibition,
‘Frontiers - The Future of Mobility’.

Each exhibit has been part inspired by the spirit of the MINI brand and
the newly launched MINI, a car that combines iconic design with
cutting-edge technology.

Body Architect Lucy McRae invites visitors to designjunction to take
part in an interactive performance, in which their body is vacuum-packed to
prepare it for space travel. Inspired by artists working with NASA, McRae's
installation will consist of a series of pods, which visitors will be
invited to step inside to prepare their bodies for the rigours of a
zero-gravity environment. "Astronauts that come back to earth suffer an
extreme osteoporosis because there's no gravity for bones. So the idea is
you get under these golden aerated cocoons and slowly the air is sucked out
of these pockets…. It is going to be weird!"

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s experimental design will investigate
genetically engineered cars grown from living materials. Synthetic
biological cars, she suggests, could evolve and mutate as they are used and
repaired so they become better adapted to their environments, just like
living organisms. "My concept is around 'repair ecologies,'" she explains.
"Would cars that are repaired in a hot place be different to cars that are
repaired in a city full of pollution, or cars repaired somewhere humid?"

Designer and filmmaker Keiichi Matsuda’s research explores the
possibilities of augmented reality, which could be used to super-impose
digital traffic information and road signage onto the physical world.
Currently augmented reality is limited to using a physical interface such
as a tablet or a headset like Google Glass. Matsuda believes that is about
to change. "I'm aware of some projects happening right at the moment, which
are set to revolutionise this kind of process," he says. "People are
looking into contact lenses as a way of introducing this digital overlay on
the world, and the other big thing is projecting directly onto your
retina."

In a future of fully automated, computer-controlled vehicles, airbags
and crumple zones will be redundant, British artist, designer and inventor
Dominic Wilcox suggests. So why not build an intricate stained-glass car?
The safe, driverless cars of the future will free up designers to create
radically different car designs, ones that you can just sit in and sleep
while it drives you to your destination. "I was really struck by the
stained glass windows of Durham Cathedral," he explains. "I thought, 'Why
don't we use that so much in contemporary design?' So I'm learning a bit
about glass making and working out how on earth does one make a
stained-glass car of the future?" Dominic is interested in technology, he
says, “because it is the closest thing to magic”.

British-Colombian artist Matthew Plummer-Fernandez re-imagines the
familiar dashboard bobblehead as a personal, 3D-printed driving companion
used to communicate with our cars. The idea is inspired by the practice of
sticking small figurines onto car dashboards to bring good luck. "These
avatars would have a personal relationship with the driver," he explains.
"They would be something that you would purchase as a product or a service,
but as you develop a relationship it would learn your preferences. So even
if you change vehicle you could take this avatar with you and install it
into your next vehicle.

Architect Pernilla Ohrstedt will design MINI’s exhibition space at
designjunction and showcase her take on the future of travel within it.
Pernilla predicts our cars will soon be able to collect detailed 3D scans
of the world around us as we drive – and will explore how we might
use this to create real-time 3D maps of our cities. "We can already go onto
Google Earth and check tourist destinations," she says. "In the future it's
really conceivable that we'll start travelling the virtual world instead of
the physical, because it will be scanned at such high resolution."

‘Frontiers - The Future of Mobility’, presented by Dezeen
and MINI, takes place at designjunction, the Old Sorting Office, from
September 17-21 as part of London Design Festival. Press previews 17
September, exhibition open to the public 18-21 September.

Dezeen and MINI Frontiers is a year-long collaboration that has seen the
first man-made leaf, a flying dress for Lady Gaga and computerised musical
gloves for Imogen Heap. All this and more at: MINI Frontiers

The following titles and media identifications are trademarks
owned by The Auto Channel, LLC and have been in continuous use
since 1987: The Auto Channel, Auto Channel and TACH all have
been in continuous use world wide since 1987, in Print, TV,
Radio, Home Video, Newsletters, On-line, and other interactive
media; all rights are reserved and infringement will be acted
upon with force.